High Bottom

Slum It Up in SOMA's Newest SRO

A swank nightspot with a secret entrance and a back alley exit in a redeveloping neighborhood named after the area’s low-income housing? The recently opened SRO has it all! With no seating besides stools, it’s said to be an abbreviation of “standing room only,” but considering its location “amidst the booming Mid-Market Gulch, where the High-Tech holds sway” next to Oddjob, it also reads as an allusion to the single room occupancy hotels of the Tenderloin, SOMA and Inner Mission. Edgy!

[Photos: Michael David Rose/UrbanDaddy]

Comments (22)

“It’s the kind of place where you look the bartender in the eye and tell him what kind of thing you’re in the mood for.”

Does that actually refer to a specific kind of place?

Per SFist, SRO stands for “standing room only”, assumingly a nod to the small space.  And for what its worth, SRO is the new project from the people behind BIG, which was a really outstanding place to get a unique off-the-cuff cocktail.  If you like $14 cocktails with interesting ingredients in interesting combinations, check it out.  If you dont, well, dont.

Is it OK to say that $14 cocktails sound like a rip-off? Is that OK to say? Because it does.

Not sure what about my comment implies what can or can not be said about the topic?

My guess is most people would say $14 is too much to spend on a drink, even one that is really good or unique to a certain bar.  That being said, if someone would perfer to have a single $14 drink at SRO instead of three $4 drinks at a place down the street, I certainly wouldn’t hold that against them.  That’s none of my business.

Are you sure it’s “none of your business”?

Because you sure do come off like a half assed shill for a piece of shit  cookie cutter hip douche splash of a tsunami of stupid themed bars with over priced drinks.

Not that it’s any of my business.

Like I said, none of my business.

Because you sure do come off like a half assed shill for a piece of shit  cookie cutter hip douche splash of a tsunami of stupid themed bars with over priced drinks.

Sigh.  What a sad attempt to be edgy.  That whole “anti-hipster” act you’re putting on… it’s getting old.   

Why do you care so much about how other people spend their money?   No one is holding a gun to your head and forcing you to buy drinks there.  

It’s not that $14 cocktails SOUND like a rip-off, it’s that $14 cocktails *ARE* a rip-off.

the cocktails in the back bar are top notch

Twitter bar.

If they are claiming that SRO is for ‘standing room only’  it just proves how insensitive and clueless these people are. I hate people/businesses that think ‘slumming’ is kitchy and cute- FUCK OFF! THIS IS REAL LIFE WITH REAL PEOPLE! I hope they get gaggles upon gaggles of people looking for residence…Assholes.

SRO noun \ˌes-(ˌ)är-ˈō\:  a house, apartment building, or residential hotel in which low-income or welfare tenants live in single rooms

Origin of SROsingle-room occupancyFirst Known Use: 1941

Just to be clear, you hate the owners (I’m sorry, “assholes”) for naming their bar “Standing Room Only” because that same combination of letters can also be used to describe a housing option for low income people?  The aptly named abbreviations.com has another 34 possible definitions for SRO.

I’m no entrepreneur, but seems to me that if one were to create a single-room occupancy themed bar to capitalize on…well, whatever you think they are trying to capitalize on, they might want to go easy with the beautiful wood, chandeliers, fresh paint on the walls, rare liquors behind the bar, etc.

Somtimes a cigar is just a cigar, and sometimes a bar is just a bar.

And sometimes a shill is a shill.

Not that there is anything wrong with that. (Well, on second thought…)

Hey guys,

Sorry, no luck tricking people at Uptown Almanac into visiting SRO.  They saw right through me, not to mention your veiled attempts at hiding the real meaning behind the name you chose. Even thought I failed, I’m going to go ahead and deposit that $10k check into my CHASE account.

See you guys at Bohemian Grove - don’t forget your swimtrunks!

Yours, in marketing…-MB

Please ignore the above message…it was meant to be posted elsewhere.

You MUST not be aware of the current sturggles of evictions/gengerfication currently transpiring in the ‘mid-market’ area. Otherwise, you would realize how this could possibly offend people who have been displaced (businesses are being shut down, rents are being raised, SRO hotels are being bought, remodeled and turned into swanky hotels thus displacing numerous low income individuals and things of the such..) 

For anyone who was raised in San Francisco, you know what SRO stands for, and you know how offensive it is to give an institution a name that may even alludes to the misfortunes and short comings of any group of people.  This is to remind people that there are people in San Francisco who grew up volunteering at St. Anthony’s, doing revival projects at local elementary schools and learning about the structural inequalities and processes that keep people in places like SRO hotels and buildings for their entire lives. There are also people who were raised in these places that have attributed endlessly to the culture and heart of San Francisco and that have enriched the lives of thousands around them. 

Standing room only and single room occupancy in my mind are synonymous with one another. In both instances you don’t have your own space or your own privacy. In both instances you have the possibility of being thrown out. For those who do not know the roots of the city (which is also reflective of the greater history of American industrialization, immigration and poverty) or those who know them and have forgotten, just remember what it means to be aware and conscious of the world around you. Ignorance is not bliss. 

I’d agree, there’s an allusion to SRO as in the low-income housing, and that’s clueless making funism at the expense of low- and no-income people; techies laughing at less fortunate people. What a stupid idea.

I am sure abbreviation.com has loads of useless combinations for anything- that means nothing to me and the neighborhood this reclaimed wood shit hole is in. The point is SRO means SINGLE ROOM OCCUPANCY for anyone with half a shit hole brain, you cannot just change what it is because you think it should be called something else- doesn’t work like that, sorry.

but if you like websites you should go here.

Seems like the perfect place to meet Marilyn Manson look-alike chicks like Sarah Slocum. 

You know what kind of thing I’m in the mood for? Molotov f***ing cocktails.Enough is enough.

This article is disgusting. I hope their locks get glued.